Diary Entry
by sanctum-c
Summary: The only diary entry Yuffie managed to write before she left Traverse Town


I kinda regret not doing this sooner. I mean I got more time to mess around before but... Aerith was always telling me to remember the past, remember where we came from, remember how things used to be. I just never realized how prescient she was being. I think she has her own journal tucked away somewhere, and I think she reads it and remembers back to how things used to be. When Cloudy and Tiffs were around. When we still lived in Hollow Bastion. I don't really remember that very well anymore, and I was in no mood to write anything when we first arrived. But I wish I had been. I mean, I remember what Hollow Bastion used to be like. Or at least I hope I have it right. I kinda want to talk to Aerith about it, but she doesn't remember Hollow Bastion that well either. She'd kept a journal for years, but I'm not sure she remembers writing those words on that paper anymore. There's something about our time back then that just slides away. It all feels right until you try to press on anything and then you realize there's no detail back there. If only her journal had some clues... But then it was never a document intended for reference. Just the thoughts and feelings of our flower girl growing up.

So; Traverse Town. I remember when we got here. Hard to forget only just arriving in one piece. I remember limping out of that rocket wreck just outside of town. Back when I could see that there was an outside of the town. Back when there was a day and a night. I'm getting ahead of myself. When we arrived there was a dusty wasteland surrounding the walled town of Traverse. Scrubby grass here and there, and a big scar cut into the landscape where Cid had got us down. I think I thought this was some kind of fun trip, but everyone was looking way too serious for that. We'd barely gotten away I would later hear them say. The Heartless had been everywhere, reaching up through the fuselage of the rocket even as Cid contravened I don't know how many safety procedures just to get us off the ground. The squishy things just hung on and they took some of the others we escaped with. Biggs, Wedge, Jessie; I barely remember them, but their loss hit the others hard.

Apparently the "shadows" (that's what the others called them) detached when we escaped orbit. I want to think of them stuck and dying in orbit around our world, or plummeting back to smush on the concrete below. Bet it wouldn't stop them though. The ones that fell would just pop right up again, and the ones in orbit would just hang there. Just waiting to drift through another passing craft and pull some tasty hearts from their bodies.

When did I get so morbid? We'd crashed somewhere else. I don't think any of the Hollow Bastion survivors cared where, and I was only just coming around to the idea that everything might not be cake and ice-cream from here on out. The rocket was a complete wreck. Cid tried to explain this to me once, and when you cleaned out the expletives from his speech it was basically boiled down to that both our take off and our landing were so far removed from how the rocket was meant to operate he hadn't had a chance to jettison the unnecessary vehicle sections before we touched down. Well. Crashed. He'd also been expecting water, and in the night we arrived in had seen only a void and hoped for the best.

We were still in one piece, but all orphaned. Well, I suspect Cid already was, and from the little Squall ever opened up I know he is, but it was different for the others; Aerith saw Ifalna taken. Cloudy saw Dala dissolve into dust as a yellow-eyed critter pulled a jeweled heart from her back. Tiff saw nothing but Heartless in her house. I never find out what happened to Godo. No one did, or at least no one would tell me if they did know. There was little to no expectation that he could have survived, and based on what we later found out about the Heartless there wasn't much hope that our world was even still there.

(Gotta break from all this moodiness. We know where it is! Sora found it! We're going back tomorrow. I can hardly believe it's still there! Wish we knew about the town, but Sora's only been to the castle!)

So; Traverse Town. It was warm and welcoming. It felt safe. They had high walls, and a passing familiarity with the Heartless. But they'd never encountered them first hand, just heard stories about them from people like us. Though other survivors hadn't come screaming through the atmosphere to tear a massive groove into the landscape. Most of 'em apparently just blinked out of thin air and startled the other denizens. At first. Startled me too for a while. Now it's like the rain. It just happens and its not even note-worthy. Everything was focused on Traverse though, a kind of interplanetary port with no launch facilities, one restaurant and no gift shop. We were unusual it turned out in that we stuck around in Traverse rather then heading out to one of the other settlements. Who knows if we made the right choice? But we're still here. Maybe all those others are out there holed up like we are. Maybe they're gone.

What is it with me and moodiness? Supposed to be concentrating on the pleasantries. Back then you could wander the town with no worries of running into Heartless. Now we're down to one district of safety (fortunately the one people arrive in), our base (Ha! If you can call it that. A tumble down one room house in the Second District) - which I think is more to do with Merlin's involvement. His place is Heartless free too. Grumpy ol'Merlin. The others seem to know him better. Allegedly I met him in Hollow Bastion and he got himself over here under his own power. Fair dues to the guy, but I don't remember him from back then. He's good at keeping Heartless out of small areas; like our base and his house.

So we had to get used to living here. Cid got right back into his obsession and started trying to build a new ship. There was this new stuff some of the other worlds used called 'gummi'. Never heard of it before, and would never in a million years believe the little squishy cubes we saw were usable star-ship material. But its surprisingly tough. It's robust, handles impact damage amazingly. And if you're really pushed, you can eat the stuff (I like the red ones. I keep getting chased out of Cid's shop when I'm peckish). Squall started insisting on being called Leon, Aerith and Tifa started taking care of the new arrivals and Cloud...

Something never sat well with him once we got here. There was something to do with this guy from Hollow Bastion; Sephiroth. He had some involvement somewhere or somehow, or he'd done something. The best I ever got from blonde hair and blue eyes is that he did something the day we left. Seems that one of us is certain who he's blaming for what went down. And I guess seeing his mom die can change how you look at the world. He left on some revenge kick eventually. Aerith didn't take that well. Not that you'd know unless you really knew her. She seemed very much the same upbeat, optimistic person as always on the outside. Except if you spent enough time with her you could tell she was hurting. He wasn't meant to be gone long, but time just stretched out, and Tiffs bless her heart decided to do something about it.

She left too, to get Cloudy back. For herself and Aerith. She had only the best intentions, but Aerith would never want to lose either of them, let alone both of them. When we first got here, the three of them admitted they were a little closer then was generally assumed. Squall and Cid apparently had a running bet over exactly which way that trio's affections fell, and both of them lost. Cloud, Tifa and Aerith decided there was no point hiding their situation after what they'd been through and naive youngster I was, I thought that's just how things were. Sure Aerith could be in a relationship with Tifa. And Tifa in a relationship with Cloud. And Cloud in a relationship with Aerith. Never made sense how Cid and Squall and Merlin looked embarrassed and changed the subject when it came up. Whenever it came up. Now I know it's rare and there's this whole monogamy thing those three were flouting. Some people say its wrong, but then I don't think those people have ever seen three people as happy as they were. They'd been together forever in one sense and I'm never quite sure when they sat down to talk out how they felt, how one even begins to have that conversation. If they even had that conversation or just piled into bed one day. They were so happy before we fled. Slightly less happy here when Cloud got all moody.

Now its just Aerith in a bed for two that was supposed to contain three. And we don't know Cloudy is okay out there. Or Tiffs. Aerith's certain they both are, and she's certain we'll see them. If Sora succeeds then that should straighten things out, and maybe, just maybe Cloudy'll come back. Whether he beats Sephiroth or not. And where Cloudy goes, Tiffs is hopefully right behind him. And when they're both back... Well, I reckon Squall and I will have to take a long walk. Maybe a vacation. Maybe we should just move out for a while and wait for them to surface afterward. Can't think about the other possibilities; Cloud returning alone, or Tifa returning alone each with the knowledge that part of their triangle is missing. Or worse if neither come back...

Hey! Come on Yuffie. Sora'll sort things out. But... if he does, and if we go back... I'll kind of miss this place. Traverse is something else. District One is still warm and comforting; there's Cid's and the Moogle's shops. There's Gepetto's house. There's the cafe and the town gates. District two has our glorious base, that weird techno room, that fountain, the Dalmatian home and the hotel (The one time we decide to splurge and have a comfortable night rather then cramped on that floor, THE ONE TIME, that's when the Heartless actually invade the place. Which was also the night Sora arrived, but seriously. Never tried again after that). And District Three has Merlin's house, that plaza and the generator. It's small, I used to get cabin fever so often when night fell outside the town, but it's home. More home then Hollow Bastion feels it will be. I'm sure there would have been worse places to wait out the Heartless then here.


End file.
